Monaleen make it three wins in-a-row with strong performance against Dromin-Athlacca in hurling championship:

Monaleen make it three wins in-a-row with strong performance against Dromin-Athlacca in hurling championship:

By Siadbh Redmond Limerick Leader Sport

MONALEEN have made it three wins in-a-row after a confident 2-20 to 1-14 victory over Dromin Athlacca in the fourth round of the Bons Secours Hospital County Senior Hurling Championship in Cappamore this evening.

Despite registering a huge amount of wides in the opening half it was the Castletroy team that lead throughout until a Dromin-Athlacca goal from Jack Fitzgibbon after 34 minutes put them slightly ahead. This lead lasted all of five minutes as Monaleen came back to finish off the game with an incredible 13 points scored in the second-half.

This is Dromin Athlacca’s second loss on the bounce after being defeated by Kildimo Pallaskenry last week. They now face Ballybrown in their final group game as Monaleen take on Kildimo Pallaskenry in two weeks time.

It was Limerick senior hurling star David Reidy that opened the scoring of tonight’s sun soaked game with a free after 47 seconds of play. This point was cancelled out by Eoghan O’Driscoll’s effort closely followed by Donnacha O’Dálaigh point to put Monaleen one-point ahead.

Reidy pointed a further two scores, one directly in-front of his own bench, before David Breen stepped up to score on the opposite side of the pitch to leave it 0-4 to 0-3 in Dromin’s favour after six minutes.

Dromin-Athlacca were put under serious pressure multiple times by the Monaleen forwards as they tried to get the ball out of their own half. This pressure eventually paid off for Monaleen as Matthew Fitzgerald intercepted the ball and rifled a shot into the back of the net to put them 1-3 to 0-4 ahead.

Now behind Dromin relied heavily on Reidy’s frees as he slotted over another score before assisting in Breen’s effort but a placed ball into the Monaleen full-forward line was not taken care of by goalie James Kelleher as O’Dálaigh got his hurl to the ball firing it into the back of the net for their second goal after 17 minutes.

Reidy fired over another two frees as Monaleen finished up the half on a Luke Murphy point to leave the Castletroy team in the lead 2-7 to 0-10 at the break.
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Much like the first-half Dromin’s captain David Reidy slotted over a further two points from frees in the opening minutes of the second-half to keep his side in the game before the ball hit the post of the Monaleen goal landing in the hands of Dromin-Athlacca forward Jack Fitzgibbon, who made no mistake with the shot on the 34 minute mark to put them two-points ahead.

Monaleen’s first score of the half came from a Lorcan Lyons 65 and another point from O’Dálaigh to level the game. The lead with back and forth as Dromin slotted over a score from midfielder Mike Reidy which was cancelled out by Joseph Fitzgerald’s effort. This would be the final time the teams would be level in the game as Monaleen kicked into fifth gear in the middle portion of the half.

Points from O’Dálaigh and Fitzgerald kept the score board ticking over as they registered five unanswered points before Dromin through Reidy once again got their final score of the game with a pointed free after 48 minutes.

Monaleen were not content with sitting back though as they drove on once again in the closing ten minutes scoring a further six points to secure the 2-20 to 1-14 win.

SCORERS MONALEEN: Donnacha O’Dálaigh 1-4, Matthew Fitzgerald 1-5 (0-5 frees), Lorcan Lyons 0-2 (0-1 free, 0-1 65), Joseph Fitzgerald 0-2, Dara Ferland 0-2, Luke Murphy 0-2, Eoghan O’Driscoll and Ben Hayes 0-1 each. DROMIN-ATHLACCA: David Reidy 0-9 (0-8 frees), Jack Fitzgibbon 1-0, David Breen 0-2, Cian Scully, Seanie O’Leary and Mike Reidy 0-1 each

MONALEEN: Jamie Power, Leo Morrison, Bryan Canny, Noel Clancy, Lorcan Lyons, Darragh Langan, Ronan Lyons, Joseph Fitzgerald, Lochlann McHale, Matthew Fitzgerald, Andrew La Touche Cosgrave, Eoghan O’Driscoll, Dara Ferland, Luke Murphy (C), Donnacha O’Dálaigh. SUBS: Ben Hayes for E O’Driscoll (42 minutes), Simon Griffin for D Ferland (58 minutes)

DROMIN-ATHLACCA: James Kelleher, Shane Fitzgibbon, William Dore, Shane Scully, Peter Ryan, Cian Scully, Sean Morrissey, Mark Fitzpatrick, Mike Reidy, Daniel Scully, Jack Fitzgibbon, Peter McMahon, Seanie O’Leary, David Breen, David Reidy (C) SUBS: Shane Rabbite for P Ryan (57 minutes), Patrick O’Donoghue for M Fitzpatrick (59 minutes), Stephen Power for P McMahon (61 minutes)

REFEREE: Eamonn Stapleton